Perceived Audio Quality Analysis in Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus System Based on PEAQ

Abstract

Broadcasters need to decide on bitrates of the services in the multiplex transmitted via Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus system. The bitrate should be set as low as possible for maximal number of services, but with high quality, not lower than in conventional analog systems. In this paper, the objective method Perceptual Evaluation of Audio Quality is used to analyze the perceived audio quality for appropriate codecs --- MP2 and AAC offering three profiles. The main aim is to determine dependencies on the type of signal --- music and speech, the number of channels --- stereo and mono, and the bitrate. Results indicate that only MP2 codec and AAC Low Complexity profile reach imperceptible quality loss. The MP2 codec needs higher bitrate than AAC Low Complexity profile for the same quality. For the both versions of AAC High-Efficiency profiles, the limit bitrates are determined above which less complex profiles outperform the more complex ones and higher bitrates above these limits are not worth using. It is shown that stereo music has worse quality than stereo speech generally, whereas for mono, the dependencies vary upon the codec/profile. Furthermore, numbers of services satisfying various quality criteria are presented.